" Joliet carried orders from
Frontenac the governor and Talon the intendant, that Marquette should join
him--or he Marquette--upon this voyage of discovery, so consonant with
Marquette's desire for divine ordering. Marquette quieted his morbid
conscience, which must have reproved his exploring ambitions, by
reflecting upon the "happy necessity of exposing his life" for the
salvation of all the tribes upon that particular river, and especially, he
adds, as if to silence any possible lingering remonstrance, "the Illinois,
who when I was at St. Esprit, had begged me very earnestly to bring the
Word of God among them."
So the learned son of Laon and the practical son of the wagon-maker of
Quebec set out westward upon their journey under the protection of
Marquette's particular divinity, but provided by Joliet with supplies of
smoked meat and Indian corn, and furnished with a map of their proposed
route made up from rather hazy Indian data. Through the strait that leads
into Lake Michigan, and along the shores of this wonderful western sea
they crept, stopping at night for bivouac on shore; then up Green Bay to
the old mission; and then up the Fox River, where Nicolet had gone, in his
love not of souls but of mere adventure.
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